Janet Cardiff – The Forty Part Motet, Arles Frankrijk

The Forty Part Motet (A reworking of ‘Spem in Alium’ by Thomas Tallis 1573). Forty separately recorded voices are played back through forty speakers strategically placed throughout the space.

Het optreden van dit koor was erg ontroerend. Wat het heel  bijzonder maakte was dat iedere stem door een box werd vertegenwoordigd en dat je daardoor iedere stem afzonderlijk van heel dichtbij kon beluisteren, je hoorde alle finesses wat het erg intiem maakte. Daardoor miste ik de visuele aanwezigheid van de zangers niet. Doordat je als bezoeker omringd werd door het koor werd je ook letterlijk omringd door het geluid. Je zat er middenin, wat de beleving heel intens maakte. En je kon door te van plaats te veranderen ook een stemgroep, bijv. de tenoren of de alten apart beter beluisteren, of beter horen waar deze op hun beurt weer gespitst werden. Een heel bijzondere ervaring.
Wat mij betreft de kracht van ontwerp in combinatie met geluid!

The work is based on the music, Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis, a Renaissance composer who wrote the music for a 40 part choir to celebrate the 40th birthday of Queen Elizabeth I. Sung by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir each voice was recorded individually, and then played back on 40 separate speakers installed throughout a space so that the audience can walk ’through the choir’ as they sing the work.
On completion the work was initially toured by Field Art Projects throughout the UK and hosted by it’s producing partners. It has subsequently gone on to tour internationally and editions are now owned by the Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art New York and the National Gallery of Canada. The work was awarded the Millennium Prize by the National Gallery of Canada.¹

 

 

 

 

Reacties op YouTube¹
‘living this was one of my best encounters with art.’
‘Many videos record the experience from one view point.  Your Audio Walk shares the reality of the experience, and I’m hear for the music and audio experience.  The speakers look like – speakers.  Thank you so much.’
‘I really enjoy this. As a whole it sounds angelic, almost impossible. Yet when you hear the individual voices they are fragile and very human.’
‘Deze opstelling zet mij aan tot bedenkingen over de verhoudingen tussen individu en samenleving.  Verder ruimtelijke en hemelse muziek’

Comments by the artist²
‘While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.

I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.’

Credits
Sung by: Salisbury Cathedral Choir
Recording and Postproduction by: SoundMoves
Edited by George Bures Miller
Produced by Field Art Project

bronnen
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0_FQ6FER74
2 http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/inst/motet.html